Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Rural Cambodia

We are very excited to report that we have met our 2018 goal of 100 bicycles, due to the very generous contribution made by a long-term individual donor for another 50 bicycles. These bicycles will be disributed in the near future.

For 2019, Trailblazer's goal is to distribute another 100 bicycles to students in need. Each year Trailblazer works with government and education officials to learn the location of students in need of a bicycle. Students who are selected to receive a bicycle are identified by the government as poor, through a questionnaire process prepared by the Ministry of Planning. The questionnaire includes a number of poverty indicators, as follows:

• Housing condition, which includes roof, wall, area, house quality (and specification of whether it is the household’s property or is rented).
• Size of legally owned residential land and productive agricultural land.
• Main source of income from growing crops or fishing, or other activities. - Animal raising (such as raising fish for sale).
• Ability to meet food requirements.
• Number of household members unable to earn an income, relative to the total number of household members.
• Material goods and equipment.
• Means of transportation.
• Unexpected problems or serious crises which cause the households to lose income, experience food shortages, sell property, or go into debt.
• Number of children aged 6 to 11 years who missed school, and the reasons.
• Situations which cause deterioration of the household’s living conditions, such as the head of household (husband or wife) suffering from serious disability or chronic disease, households consisting exclusively of elderly members, households with orphans living with them, female-headed households with many young children, or households with no members with the capacity to work.
• Situations which improve the household’s living conditions, such as assistance from relatives or other income sources. 

You can see that there is quite a process involved in determining the students most in need of a bicycle. Often that bicycle is the only mode of transportation for the entire family.

We are also proud to report that the construction of two more primary schools are nearly complete. Trailblazer had not planned to construct a school in 2018, but due the very generous contributions of five donors, we initiated these two projects in February and May, respectively. Each school will be able to accommodate 480 students, for a total of 960 students. This will result in students who graduate each year to the secondary level of their education needing bicycles.

We can’t express enough how grateful we are to donors who help us reach our goals. More importantly, it is the generosity of those donors who impact the lives of students by giving them the means to continue their education, and further their families hope for a better life.

We hope you will consider helping us reach our goal of 100 bicycles for 2019! Thank you.

One way to break the cycle of poverty, especially on a generational level, is to ensure that children have the opportunity to go to school. Trailblazer has two parts to its Education program: building schools and providing bicycles so students can continue school.

Trailblazer Foundation’s first education project, in 2005, was to construct a primary school building. Since then, Trailblazer has constructed seven school buildings and two libraries. This year, two more school buildings are currently under construction. Each six classroom building can support 480 students, 40 students per classroom, two sessions per day.

Additionally, Trailblazer works to reduce a barrier to education by providing bicycles to our partner villages, so students can travel to schools within their district. This is particularly true of students in Junior and Senior High School, as not every village has one of these schools (they are often shared between villages). Without a bicycle, many students would simply drop out because their secondary level school is just too far away.

To date, Trailblazer has distributed 50 bicycles to students going into the secondary level of school. This is 50% of our 2018 goal. Now these 50 students have a means of travel to and from school and are able to continue their education.

You can help make the next half of the year have as much success by supporting a rural student's education. With a donation of $55 another student can receive a bicycle.

Thank you for your gift and for making a difference in a student's life.